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b2ap3_thumbnail_1280px-Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg"I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a little dangerous."
Queen Victoria

The Wheel of the Year has turned past the Summer Solstice, so Friday’s New Moon is in Cancer, just a few days before our Mom, apple pie and fireworks patriot-fest on July 4th here in the USA. I suspect there will be all kinds of fireworks in the upcoming month, both literal and figurative. But given the Mars-Uranus opposition in this chart, I strongly advise taking extra precautions if you are working with anything flammable or explosive! Here’s the chart, as usual cast for Washington, DC, and predictive for the month ahead for the country. It’s also broadly predictive, on a more personal level, for those of us living here.

(And yes, I know I said I’d send my newsletter out on the New Moon, but that will be the *next* New Moon, so if you signed up and you’re wondering where it is…well, this blog post is all you get for this one. :-) And if you didn’t sign up, you can remedy that right here)

This is a chart of Water and Air, and if you’re an artist, you should get to work. There’s a lot of creative energy floating around this month, but — artist or not — keep in mind that trying to be too clever and bright can work against your emotional and spiritual relationships. Cleverness tends to be ego-driven, and you’ll want to watch your own ego this month, remembering to, as Steven Covey put it, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” There’s lots of emotional, connecting energy you can draw on this month, but you are also likely to see plenty of people in full look-at-me peacock mode, demanding attention and respect. Get clear now on just how much posturing and nonsense you are going to put up with, and have a plan to deal with it politely but firmly when you find yourself in the middle of someone else’s drama. If you can get past ego needs — your own and others —  the chart also offers lovely opportunities for deep connections with family, friends and tribe.

There’s a strong illusionary, trickster vibe in the air this month, a tendency to distraction, and to deception. (Astrologers will note the strong Gemini influence in this chart — it is the Ascendant, and holds both Venus and sign ruler Mercury. Mercury has a strong Trickster aspect, which is more obvious when it’s retrograde, and Venus in and ruling the twelfth, square Neptune is quite seductive and dangerous, keeping whatever it can low-lighted or under wraps). There are also patterns that support strongly transformative, life-changing emotional experiences. (Water emphasis, Sun and Moon trine Neptune, oppose Pluto. Venus-Neptune square). Magical/meditative work to develop the Observer, monitor your thought patterns, and deeply connect to your personal spiritual foundation will benefit not only you but those around you.

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New Moon in Cancer: This is the Current You Want to Dive Into

The New Moon occurs in its own sign – Cancer - at 1:08 am (PDT) on Friday June 27.  Cancer is the archetype of the Great Mother, and shelters within its embrace comfort, sustenance, security, family, empathy, and tradition.  Cancer energy prompts us to explore our roots, unearthing cues and clues to our own emotional nature and psychic foundation.  Where do we come from? What is our inheritance from our family, the lost homeland, the tribe?  The closest aspect to this New Moon is an ethereal Trine to mystical Neptune in Pisces at 4:53 am.  Here we have both the Moon in its own sign, and Neptune in its own sign, underlining the intuitive, romantic, and yes, otherworldly pull of the subjective.  This is a wildly potent and fertile combination of energies; a deep meeting of body, spirit and extra sensory perception.  Whether you are a writer, artist, lover, or magic-maker, this is the current you want to dive into to bathe in divine inspiration.

Cancer is a Cardinal Water sign, meaning that it is a sign that begins a season, and resonates with the emotionally receptive element of Water.  Cancer is the only sign associated with the Moon.  It is changeable, and like the tides, moves in and out of waxing and waning cycles from receptivity and emotional fullness to introspective retreat.  Cancer is a sign of intuition, empathy, and inner knowing. It resonates with ancestral memory, shifting internal currents, and the unfathomable depths of the psyche.  When Cancer is out of balance or acting from its shadow, it can become entangled in subtle emotional undercurrents, arising in deep melancholic un-nameable longings, strange compulsions and inward vision, which has come to be known as infamous Cancerian “moodiness”.

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b2ap3_thumbnail_monarch-emerging.jpgThe Summer Solstice this year happens on June 21 at 6:52 a.m. EDT. This is the moment when the Sun touches the Tropic of Cancer, and enters the sign of Cancer. Astrologers refer to this moment as the “Cancer Ingress” and cast a chart as the Sun hits 0 degrees of that sign. The chart is predictive for the upcoming three months. Here is this year’s chart, cast for Washington, DC, which is predictive for the entire country. Here is the ingress chart in a bi-wheel with the USA’s chart.

We’ll definitely be hearing from revolutionaries of all stripes over the next three months, particularly related to foreign affairs, higher education, religion, government, and big business. Even the economists will be calling for change, and undoubtedly the Tea Partiers will continue to wave their “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and use rifles as fashion accessories while random shootings by insane people become a weekly news item. So far, the Cardinal Cross has heralded a lot of destructive upheaval in the world — wildfires, civil wars, kidnappings, floods, earthquakes, transportation disasters, mudslides, shootings — but the main message of this celestial pattern, which is anchored by the profound and life-changing Uranus-Pluto square, is that we have reached criticality in the health of the planetary web of life. It is the under-reported changes and collapses within ecosystems, the rapidity of climate change, the insanity of those in power who ignore the crisis and conspire with their corporate cronies to extract every last drop of fuel from the body of the Earth, that exemplify for us the lessons of survival we are faced with.

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New Moon in Gemini: Radical Experimentation and Wild Imaginings

This morning, May 28th at 11:40 am (PDT) the New Moon in Gemini occurs, hovering for less than a moment in that space between breaths, and begins waxing even before she is visible in the heavens.  Gemini energy encourages us toward radical experimentation and wild imaginings.   We have the urge to get up and go, and explore new ideas, terrains, and paradigms.

Gemini is a mutable air sign, and as such is connected to the realm of the mind.  Gemini is associated with imagination, communication, language, culture, the Internet, and study. Because it is a mutable sign, it bridges one season into the next, and connects ideas, people, and things.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Danielle Blackwood
    Danielle Blackwood says #
    Hey Kelly! Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed my post.
  • Kelly Benson
    Kelly Benson says #
    Beautiful! thank you Danielle
New Moon in Taurus: Deep and Delicious, Sweet and Nutritious

The New Moon in Taurus, which just happens to coincide with the annular Solar Eclipse occurs at 8 degrees Taurus at 11:14 pm PDT on April 28th.

Many of us feel exhausted from the Astrological events that have unfolded since the Full Moon in Libra/Lunar Eclipse on April 15th.  The days following that catalyst were a game changer for many, with one door closing, and another door opening, but many of us can’t quite see where that other door is leading us to just yet.  We only know something integral has shifted, and some of us are likely feeling a bit fragile, blinking at the light of the new day. Then, on the heels of the eclipse came the Cardinal Grand Cross, which exacted between Sunday the 20th and Wednesday the 23rd.  No one could blame you if you feel depleted, shaken, and wanting to hide beneath the covers.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_heartbleed.pngThe recent news has been so full of the current astrological symbolism, it’s hard for a poor astrologer to keep up. In tech news (Uranus rules computers and hi-tech) we have the NASDAQ sell-off, and the Heartbleed bug — which may not be entirely unrelated. In the “yet more insane, horrifying violence” sort of news, we have the shooting at Fort Hood, and the stabbings at a PA school, both involving heroic actions by women. Also, this.  I suggested the likelihood of "notable actions of a woman or group of women" happening this month in my post on the Aries New Moon.

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Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Byron Ballard
    Byron Ballard says #
    I think I'm going to print this out so I can carry it with me. Every time I read it, I find something new. Thanks, my dear friend

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 

b2ap3_thumbnail_tightrope-walker-in-moon_20140319-010748_1.jpgThe chart of the Spring Equinox of 2014 is an intense, powerful chart that suggests a strong possibility of a sudden and profound awakening within the country. This chart influences the next three months — until the Summer Solstice — and is cast for Washington, DC, so is predictive for the entire USA.

This chart (find it here, and a bi-wheel with the USA chart here) speaks strongly of ideology run amok — not that we haven’t been seeing enough of that lately in the halls of government, especially here in Appalachia, where Republicans Gone Wild has been the theme recently, and the environment we all live in is paying for their extreme ideology (coal ash, anyone? A cocktail of mystery chemicals? Some tailings from mountain top removal?). I suspect that that there will be strong components of religion and environmentalism in the loud and heated discussions and clashes of ideas that seem inevitable this Spring, not to mention explosive events. We are walking the high wire during this time of the Uranus-Pluto square, and all our focus needs to be on getting to the other side, to a sustainable, life-affirming culture.  

But there’s a strong call to spirituality, ethics and evolution in this chart as well. The conjunction of Mercury and Neptune in Pisces is a magical one, with the magic strengthened by the trine from Jupiter. Mercury is in his detriment in Pisces, which is kind of like being at a party where you don’t know the other people, and you’re not sure you want to. But we can give him something useful to do by directing our minds towards creating visions of a better future using the oceanic awareness of Neptune and Pisces. This is a great opportunity to sharpen and strengthen our meditation and  visualization skills. Magically, work to connect with tutelary spirits should be well-supported. However, there is also a risk of getting lost in fantasy or embroiled in deception, so it’s important to stay grounded and to listen if trusted friends question our judgment.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Byron Ballard
    Byron Ballard says #
    Crazy-good, as always. Shoo, kitty, you rock this stuff!
  • Diotima
    Diotima says #
    Thank you, Greybeard. Agreed!
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    You are right that its a time for people to wake up. I read today that use of wood for heating fuel has doubled in less than 10 y

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